Research has shown that the success of human interpersonal relationships depends on complex interactions between a large number of variables including, but not limited to, personality, socioeconomic status, religion, appearance, ethnic background, energy level, education, interests and appearance. Matching services have developed effective systems that analyze these variables to identify and match people who have the potential to establish a successful relationship. A well-known example of such a service is eHarmony, Inc. (which can be found at www.eharmony.com). A matching service generally collects and stores data to create a “profile” for each user. The profile includes a number of factors potentially relevant to establishing a successful interpersonal relationship with that user. The matching service then correlates that user's profile with others in its database to assess which profiles are compatible, i.e., which users have the potential for a successful relationship when matched. The potential matches are then presented to the user along with means for initiating and/or facilitating the interpersonal relationship between the user and the potential match.
The variables used by these matching services are generally self-identified—i.e. users are required to explicitly indicate the existence and/or extent of interests, traits, qualities and/or preferences that they identify in themselves or that they desire in a potential match. Appearance, or physical attractiveness, is one such variable that is difficult to predict accurately through survey evidence. And while physical attraction generally becomes less critical to a meaningful relationship as the relationship continues, it is often the make-or-break factor in initiating the relationship.
Websites such as hotornot.com and facemash.com offer forums where users can review user submitted photos of members and indicate the physical attractiveness of the depicted individual. Some of these websites offer the ability to initiate communications with the users depicted in the photos. However, these websites generally use randomly generated photos and focus solely on physical appearance. As such, they are limited in their ability to present opportunities for long lasting interpersonal relationships to their users. Moreover, these websites are dependent on user uploaded photos, and so the pool of potential candidates for a relationship is limited.
Accordingly, alternative systems and methods for facilitating interpersonal relationships may be desirable.